


Sycamore reunion

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Melissa and paul say acab, TW for mentions of gaslighting/toxic relationships, TW for some drinking, TW for talk about police, fake dating elements, just read cautiously is highschool was a bit yikes, this is kinda shitty but writing fics is cheaper than counselling babeyy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25259812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Paul is persuaded to attend the Sycamore high school reunion, it’s not pleasant, especially when he’s tasked with making sure a secret stays under wraps
Relationships: Paul Matthews & Melissa, Paul Matthews/ Emma Perkins, Sam/ Charlotte
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	Sycamore reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic from the drafts circa November 2019
> 
> As a TW, there is talk about cops being corrupt & I understand that bringing real world issues into fiction can be a little unsettling especially for people who use escapism as a coping mech so do be careful! There is also a little look into toxic relationships which might also be a little unnerving for people who’ve been in one 
> 
> So this is totally on me for assuming I had set things up in prior fics I hadn’t but this is another fic about the Paul and Melissa highschool experience and all that needs to be known is they hung out together bc they didn’t have any friends lmao n that’s abt it

“Timberwolves!” Melissa cheered as she parked in the old Sycamore parking lot, fidgeting excitedly in her seat. 

“Yeah, hah, Timberwolves,” he gave her a thumbs up, much less enthusiastic. “Are you ready?” He was not.

“Uh yeah of course!” Melissa exclaimed. “We’re gonna be the coolest people here!” 

Paul was still smiling, so he didn’t choose to remind Melissa that they were in fact the least cool people in the whole of Sycamore when they attended.   
But Melissa on the other hand was pretty convinced she could’ve been the most popular girl in school if homophobia wasn’t all the rage back then. 

“Sycamore reunion!” Melissa repeated as if she had to remind Paul, because clearly he wasn’t as thrilled as her. “I bet Hatchetfield high isn’t getting one of these!” 

He didn’t have the heart to tell her that their rivalling school had a reunion four months ago. Emma had taken him. “Yeah, I bet not.”

“Look, I bought this jacket just for tonight,” she showed off her jacket to him again for the third time. One of those denim ones with the jersey sleeves. It was a fairly drastic change from her predominantly pastel wardrobe, like she was trying too hard to change herself. 

He had no comment about how she looked. It just wasn’t her style. As ‘hardcore’ as she thought she looked she was still the same Melissa with the slightly too big glasses and the bucked teeth. Maybe she should’ve stuck a few nails in her baseball bat. That’s be a lot more hardcore. 

Paul was worried what her enthusiasm would do to her tonight. Her hopes seemed too high.

“Don’t look so down, Paul!” She played with the zipper on her jacket, pulling it up and down to make a noise. “Our high school bully’s wife is your co worker! He can’t bully us anymore, we’re practically best friends.” 

“No we aren’t,” Paul corrected her, not wanting her to be unreasonable. “Plus, Sam had a gang.” 

Melissa just shrugged it off, sticking out her tongue. “Yeah! But we’re all civilised adults now!” She rolled her eyes, incredulous. “And if they choose not to be, I’ve packed my baseball bat,” she gave a more nonchalant shrug as if she saw nothing illegal about that. “Crowd control.”

Paul was going to have to take painkillers for a headache he didn’t even have yet. 

“I bet those girls who wouldn’t let me hang out with them are gonna feel stupid tonight,” she declared, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and shoving her hands into her pockets. She tilted her head at the gym doors to gesture that they should start walking.

“If they’re here. They might not be, wouldn’t that be better?” The night actually meant a lot to her. Paul had changed a lot since high school, but Melissa was almost the same person as when they first met.

Today she had spent an hour long lunch getting the most perfect cat-eye makeup she had ever worn. All just to show off to a bunch of people who probably wouldn’t even remember her. 

“I dunno. I’m just gonna be happy to show of the fact I am not in fact a ‘single forever’ kinda guy,” he was only looking forward to one thing tonight - rambling about his girlfriend to anyone who would listen. 

“Ou that’s cute. She’s a Hatchetfield tiger though. Boo!” Melissa had her thumbs under the straps of her backpack as they walked along side by side. Just like high school. 

“Yeah, but it’s Emma. And who even cares about that whole school rivalry thing. We’re thirty Melissa.” 

“Uh, correction, you’re thirty. You graduated before some of Sycamore’s finest sport years! We came first in basketball a couple years ago.” 

Paul bit his lip. There was only one other school in the tournament. “Come on Mel. Let’s not hype this up too much. There’ll probably be like twenty people and a salad bar. Perhaps like, two teachers and the new principal.”

“Well if there’s twenty people or one hundred, we’ll still be the coolest people in the room!” She walked with a skip in her step. 

He laughed with her, but he was worried about what her enthusiasm would do to her. It was a high school reunion, not an award ceremony. It wasn’t mandatory to even show up, he didn’t know how many people would’ve gotten that memo.

Paul got shivers as he stepped across the threshold into the school gym, his hands starting to sweat almost immediately as he breathed in that air. It was like his brain was thawing out and his heart began to race. He gave an anxious laugh. 

The squeaking sound of sneakers on the glossed gym floor and the loud and noticeably awkward chatter was high pitched and constant. The noises were already off putting.

Fortunately it was what he expected. About forty, maybe fifty people and a drinks table. Not a bad turn out for Sycamore he supposed. He hadn’t agreed to come himself until Melissa coerced him into it after a week of cajoling. 

“Ah. No salad bar,” Melissa quipped, nudging him. “Drinks table is way cooler.” She pulled at the strings of her hoodie, fiddling with those instead now. It sort of gave away she was more anxious than she was perhaps letting on. Or perhaps she just needed to do something with her hands.

“Let’s go check it out,” he gestured with his head, keeping his voice low, instinctively returning to keeping himself quiet and under the radar. The only person who he hoped would be here would be his old programming treacherous, but he was pretty sure he retired long ago and for good reason.   
Melissa was the only person he could ever hang out with, even if for only one year, and he saw her just about every day. 

Ugh. School. Certainly more traumatic that it needed to be, as a thirty year old man he wished he wasn’t still having nightmares about waking up late for school or not doing his homework.  
“This really takes you back huh?”

“Yeah, I feel like we’re about to do the pacer test,” she gave an exaggerated shiver jokingly, but her hands tucked themselves into her pockets. “So,” she lowered her voice down again. “What do the cool kids drink?” She asked as they got to the self serve bar. “If I wanna look really cool?”

Paul just fished out a can of the only beer he could tolerate from the surprisingly fancy ice buckets. “Do you wanna get drunk? I thought you were the designated driver.”

“I just wanna look like I have fun,” she told him, trying to grab a similar drink to his from the ice buckets. 

“Just take a cider or a cruiser or something,” he shook his head. “You don’t have to act all cool it’s just a reunion. There might not even be anyone here you knew,” he tried to let her down easily, because it was definitely for the better if there weren’t. 

“Oh, well what do you wanna do?” She took a ginger sip of her drink, her eyes almost hyper focused on him. 

He turned away to lead them away from the crowd at the table, hoping it would stop her odd staring. “You were the one who wanted to come. I wonder if the rest of the school is open?” 

“Oooh,” she chuckled, hopping after him. “Let’s break in to the old library, how about- oofh!” She was cut short as she slammed right into someone’s back. Perhaps the high school instincts really had kicked in, and she had gone back to assuming people here would split the sea to avoid her. 

“I hope you weren’t being serious about that,” to their unfortunate surprise, it was Sam who she had crashed into. 

Perhaps it was old memories interfering with his head, but Paul found himself backing away on instinct. “She was just kidding,” he jumped to assure Sam. God, didn’t he have anywhere better to be? Or was he just that desperate to avoid being home alone with Charlotte? 

It was weird to see him out of uniform, even worse to be able to see into his eyes for a change. It must’ve been the location that helped him connect the dots but Paul could actually see him piece together for the first time that they were the two kids he used to bully so many years ago. “Having fun?” He just asked, completely unsure of what else to say. 

“Yes, sir,” Melissa stammered, taking over now that Paul seemed to have lost the ability to talk. “You?” She has resorted to her customer service voice, Paul on the other hand felt like he was about to be arrested and was quickly looking for an out from the conversation, suddenly quite desperate for someone else he knew.

“It’s kinda a mediocre show don’t you think?” He took a sip of his beer, exhaling loudly. “Just wanted to check it out, see if that hot girl from English would show up, eh.” He took another drink.

Paul took a drink too, and Melissa copied. 

“Aren’t you literally married?” Melissa spluttered awkwardly like she was telling a joke, her voice caught in the neck of the bottle because she didn’t take it far away from her mouth to speak. 

Sam lowered his beer, a glower starting to grow on his face as the words processed.

“Okay have a good night Sam!” He grabbed Melissa’s arm to spin her back around the other way. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “I hate Sam.” If he had known he’d be here he wouldn’t have come, no matter how much persuasion came his way. He followed Melissa in her natural beeline towards the corner to hide. “Why’d you say that?” He asked, trying to stop her. 

“I dunno, someone has to call him out for it right?” She asked as Paul guided her the other way. “He bullied you for years why can’t I call him out?” 

“Because he’s a cop, but also because he’s an adult so we just have to mind our own business sometimes okay?” He advised, not that he encouraged him to have an affair of course. But no one tells the police what to do it seemed, and a little inquiry from Melissa wouldn’t make him stop, it would just upset him and put them both in danger. “Sometimes you just gotta keep your head out of things. It’s what I do.”

She grabbed her arm back to nurse it. “Can’t you get mad at Sam instead of me?” 

“No,” he sighed. “I’m already bothered you made me come. Now it’s just a whole lot worse.” With Sam here, there was really no difference to his brain what year it was. He was back at school with the kid who used to beat him up and steal his things. Why should he be lenient?

“Oh,” she stopped her beeline now, following Paul as he walked absently off towards the walls. “Sorry, Paul. Why don’t you go check if there’s anyone from your old year level here?” She suggested perhaps in an attempt to appease him. 

He nodded. That would be the only benefit of coming he supposed. “Yeah, okay. Don’t go breaking into anything, please. You were joking right?” His eyes flitted around to ensure there was nothing to break into. 

She gave an obedient nod and a salute, trying to get him to smile again. “Okay, no breaking into anything, only because you asked so nicely though. Go have fun man, I’ll go have a look too!” She fiddled with her jacket to keep it looking cool. 

He gave her a bit of a tense, forced smile to show he appreciated it at least. 

His feet still knew their way around the gym, his throat still tried to close up at the smell, his heart still picked up its pace. This whole place was grim in hindsight, there were never any exaggerations about how brutal high school was, in his opinion anyway. He was drained from the moment he pulled up outside. 

He didn’t know what world Melissa was living in to be so excited about coming back! It was like she was really just on her way to hand in an essay she worked hard on, collect her good grades and go sit on the grass outside with her friends. She really hadn’t changed. 

Although he didn’t quite remember what she was like in high school, his brain had sort of suppressed a lot of that stuff. 

“Oh, hey!” Someone grabbed his shoulder as he passed by and he flinched, swinging around to face whoever it was. What was it about tonight that wanted to be so awful as to cast personal space completely out the window? “Paul? Is that you?” The man squinted under the poor gym lights. “Hey!” 

It took Paul a second to recognise the man too, but his immediate fear seemed to brush itself away as his mind managed to recall his old school captain. He was always friendly, school votes were popularity contests after all. But he was surprised anyone recognised him at all.   
“Hey, Dylan! Yeah!”

“Oh wow, man,” he put his hands on his hips, puffing his chest right out. “Yeah, I remember you, you’re much taller than you used to be,” he began with an amused laugh. “And you look way more confident!” 

“Oh, thank you!” He smiled, feeling quite special all of a sudden. “Yeah! You think?” He laughed, surprised to have his attention. If this was still school captain speak he didn’t even care.

“Yeah, I do think,” he laughed a little stiffly, “you were very quiet when you were in school.” 

“Oh yeah,” he rubbed his neck, taking a sip of his drink. “I, well, you know. I was just a quiet kid.” He didn’t want to talk about that. It made him squirm to bring everything up. He wanted Dylan to tell him he looked confident again. “You? How are you?” He changed the topic back to him to give him some time to think. “Have you been well?” 

“Oh I’m good! You know me and the gang still catch up pretty often, they’ve all changed a bunch though. What about you?”

He wasn’t sure what part of that he was being asked about, honestly. “Yeah I’ve been well!” He answered simply, starting to get a little eager now that things weren’t actually going too bad. It felt nice to ignore what had happened, to reintroduce himself as a totally new person and be accepted. “Uh, I still see my old friends every now and then,” Melissa was the only friend he had retained from high school. Yet alone one of the only ones he had made. 

“Yeah, you used to hang out with that girl for a bit there, she was a couple years below you. Didn’t something happen with her?”

He nodded to confirm that fact. “Yeah, Melissa,” he gave a quick glance around the room to see if she was nearby, slowing down in his speech. “Yeah we still see each other sometimes,” he scratched the back of his neck nervously. “But you know.” 

“Yeah. Man I know I was supposed to be the school captain but the kids man. They were so annoying. We weren’t that annoying at their age were we?” He asked like they had been friends for ages and ages. “Yeah, I always knew you were pretty cool though. I don’t know what sort of drama she was in.”

Well Paul would have never called his high school self ‘cool,’ but a relieved laugh forced its way up at the idea some people might’ve thought that. “Thanks. Yeah.” 

“Hey, you remember Blake? On the basketball team?” 

Paul blinked. No. He didn’t play basketball, let along remember many peoples faces. “Yep,” he answered instead. 

“He’s just outside taking a smoke, hey, how about you come outside with us?”   
———————————————————

No, Melissa wasn’t actually going to see if there was anyone about she knew. Why would she? The only people asides from Paul that she knew where the people who who made high school hell, and she was stable enough not to go chasing them out.

She wanted to go find some of her old teachers, maybe some of the other girls from the student council perhaps. But none of her old ‘friends.’ People didn’t hang out with her for a reason back then, and as much as she had once wanted she wasn’t going start crawling back now, not voluntarily she thought, until she heard one of them squeal from behind her, it just about cut ten years off her lifespan to hear that voice again.

“Lissie?” She would recognise the voice anywhere, that slightly too high pitched sound that gave her a headache and haunted her in her nightmares to this day. 

She turned around with a vague and lingering sense of dread to see in fact, not one but two one of her closest friends before things had turned sour. She backed up, giving an unamused, bitter smile. “Hey, Simone, Brooke, what’re you guys doing here?” It wasn’t her usual spiel of dumb questions, rather a more polite way of saying she didn’t want to see them. “Call me Melissa, by the way.” Lissie, god that was obnoxious coming from them.

“I haven’t seen you in forever!” Simone gushed. “I just love your makeup.”

“Yeah how come we stopped hanging out after high school?” Brooke cooed, perhaps already slightly drunk as she reached out a hand to run her fingers through Melissa’s hair. 

Melissa took a big sip of her drink. She would need it. “Because you kept calling me homophobic slurs, yeah,” she nodded, matching their high pitched, valley girl tone of voice. “Don’t know if you remember that.” 

The two girls burst out in these weird, dismissive laughs, waving nonchalant hands and batting at her shoulder. “Highschool was wild, oh my god wasn’t it?” Simone said. “Oh my god, you’re kidding?”

“No, I came out and then you started ignoring me and when I called you guys out for being homophobic you pretended I never existed and Brooke gaslit me and never spoke to me again so yeah.” It was a rather succinct explanation, but she had been screwing over high school for enough years to have a summary ready to go. “Yeah so,” she even moved to turn away but something about it just made them laugh again.

“I’m so glad that’s all over now,” Brooke groaned loudly. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry about the way things went, I was still really immature and finding myself and was honestly kinda a huge dick,” Simone let out a melancholic, theatrical sigh. 

She huffed, feeling her stomach begin to churn. She didn’t want an apology, she just wanted them to let her walk away. God, how dumb was a half asses apology all these years later after that bit of highschool trauma? How could they be smiling right now? That was what made the anger almost unbearable. That they still hadn’t changed. 

“All that stress, ugh,” Brooke filled in when Melissa didn’t accept the apology. “You know we were all crazy back then! How have you been?” 

She hated the way she wasn’t even talking about it. No apology, she had just erased it from her mind - because clearly it didn’t affect her. 

“Did you go to University after you graduated? How terrible, I honestly can’t believe people who can do it twice,” Brooke rolled her eyes like there was no wilder though. 

“Yeah I went to uni,” Melissa answered, widening her stance and starting to get defensive. She didn’t owe any answers to them but her heart was skipping and her mind was running a few seconds out of sync and she spoke without thinking it through.

“Hahah, I don’t believe it” Brooke laughed, changing topics just like that.

“Oh, well...” she awkwardly brushed her hair behind her ear, having nothing left to say.

“How have you been? Have you been well?” She brought it right back around, speaking surprisingly quick for someone slurring their speech. 

“Hey are you still a lesbian?” Simone interrupted, holding out a hand to stop her in case she kept talking. 

Not that Melissa wanted to talk at all, but certainly not about that. She was starting to feel stupid having put in all this effort for tonight. “Yep,” she began to tug at the sleeves of her jacket. 

“Ooh that’s so cute,” Brooke cooed. “As long as you don’t flirt with me!” She added, because of course she would. 

It felt demeaning to be interrogated like this, and her hands sunk deep into her pockets as she gave her standard response. “You aren’t my type.”

“What? Do you already have a girlfriend?” Suddenly she seemed to be disappointed. “You’re so pretty, of course you have one right? It’d be really sad if you didn’t.”

Shit. Her heart skipped a beat and she went to take a drink to get rid of the dry feeling in her throat but she didn’t want to seem hesitant, she didn’t want to risk them knowing the truth. “Yeah!” She answered quickly, hurrying to take a sip. Perhaps she’d need another drink. 

“Oh cute! Show us a photo.”

“Yeah I wanna see if she’s real!” Brooke pushed forward to grab onto her arm, watching her pull out her phone and not even looking away when she put her code in, keeping a firm grip on her arm too so she couldn’t quite adjust it. 

Her mind was sort of a blur, either from the drink or the boiling anger really starting to burn in her stomach now. It was almost kind of violating, like they were the judges of it all of a sudden. Not that she had a girlfriend, but she shouldn’t have to prove it to them! 

“Come on, we wanna see her, do we know her?” Simone shuffled in too, so much so she could barely see her phone. She was about to shake them off and snap but she kept her calm. It was just like Paul said, sometimes you have to be an adult. 

“Here she is,” she gulped. 

The only other girl she took enough photos with that looked anywhere around her age, Emma Perkins. 

“Ooh,” Simone shrugged. “She’s pretty, you two are dating?”

“That’s what girlfriend means, yeah.” She wanted to put her phone away as quickly as possible, but Brooke grabbed her hand to swipe through them. 

“What’s her name?”

Melissa didn’t answer, but Brooke didn’t let it go. “Who is she?”

“Her name is Emma, is not that important,” she snatched her hand back and tucked her phone into her pocket again, not hesitating to glare at them until they stopped encroaching on her personal space, but not really having the guts to do much else. 

“Oh well that’s cool,” Brooke blinked, mood totally changed. 

“It’s totally cool you know,” Simone added with a melodramatic shrug, eyes closed. “You should let us meet her some time,” she suggested casually. It didn’t upset Melissa that she wanted more proof, but more that she was assuming they’d hang out again after this. Like it was all in the past now.

“Hey, can you excuse me for a second?” This was her get away it seemed, as she had briefly reminded them why they were so disgusted with her in the first place. 

“Yeah okay, we’ll be about, you have to come find us when you’re back okay? Be quick,” Brooke almost ordered. 

Melissa scoffed, her anger morphing into a sick and heavy guilt that snaked through her veins. It was much more painful than the anger.

She had to go find Paul. She couldn’t just let them find out the truth.   
———————————————————

Once he had left the gym, Paul had calmed down quite a bit. The loud noises from inside were dulled and distant, too muffled to fill up his head. 

The two men, Dylan and Blake were a few drinks down so they paid no attention to any of his social nerves, and soon enough he was laughing along with them at stories he only vaguely remembered. 

It was fine even when they told stories Paul wasn’t there for, it just gave him less to worry about when he wasn’t expected to add anything to the conversation.   
He had never felt so light, knowing that these men knew nothing about his past but were willing to accept him anyways.   
He felt like he had been chosen. 

Dylan had lots of stories that made him laugh. 

Ones about boys making mistakes on the basketball team, dozens of stories about younger kids thinking they were too cool, insider knowledge about the teachers. 

Honestly, some of them were a little cruel. Paul wouldn’t bully anyone of those sort of stuff but he figured maybe Dylan was just drunk. The way he told the stories was just funny, he assured himself, he wouldn’t laugh at someone’s misfortune. It wasn’t funny to hear about a girl who had bled through her clothes, or a boy who cried when he didn’t get on the basketball team. When he had time to think about it in his mind space he realised he was only laughing because of the nerves. It wouldn’t be normal if he didn’t laugh along with them all he figured and he didn’t want to offend the man who was accepting him by not laughing at his jokes.

He was thankful actually, that Melissa did manage to get him to tag along. He was enjoying this, some aspect of it at least.

“Were you really not in any sports?” Dylan inquired in disbelief. “I swear we’ve played basketball together.”

“Probably just because I’m tall,” he snorted. “No, I never did sports, I was more of a card guy. I used to hang out in the library,” his delivery dipped halfway through when he realised that might not have been what they wanted to hear, he even thought he could see it in their eyes but then they just laughed. 

“Oh I guess we didn’t then!” 

And the trio erupted with laughter that bounced right off the concrete walls, the only sound louder was a panicked voice calling out his name seconds before someone latched onto his shoulder.

“Hey Paul!” Melissa tried not to interrupt but the way the walls caught their voices made it seem very rude as she grabbed onto his arm. “Can I borrow your for a sec?” 

“Uh, Dylan, this is Melissa,” he introduced her a little awkwardly, edging away to get her off his shoulder. 

“Hi,” she gave a small wave, a little crestfallen for some reason.

“Oh the kid yeah?” The man chuckled and Blake reciprocated it, but Paul was a little anxious 

“Sorry, I just have to talk to Paul really quickly about something, can you come with me Paul?” She asked politely, sticking close to him as to not invite herself into their common space.

A little hesitantly he nodded, not wanting to miss out on this camaraderie when he thought he was doing so well. 

She made sure to lead him out of the under cover areas so that her voice wasn’t going to be amplified anymore, but it seemed like she was stalling for time and Paul wanted to head back to his new friends. Old friends? Friends, anyways.

“Paul,” she started, hands tight around her phone. 

“Are you okay?” He asked, tapping his fists together. “Is something wrong?”

She nodded, keeping level headed as to not worry or frighten him more. “Y’know who’s here tonight?” She shifted her weight back and forth between her feet.

“Uh, who?” Sam was the worst person he could think of and that was already out of the way.

She stalled on the names too, gritting her teeth as she waited for him to fill in the gaps, but he didn’t. “You know, Brooke and Simone,” she rubbed her hands together, her breathing growing a little forced. 

“Oh,” he frowned. “Well,” he couldn’t quite invite her to come over and socialise with his new friends, who had made it clear where they stood on some of the younger students. Perhaps it was time to go home. “Did you talk to them?” 

She nodded. “It’s not important, but I just need you to help me cover for something,” she began, her eyes meeting his quite desperately. “I kinda told them I was dating Emma,” she confessed. 

He didn’t get it at first. “Oh, haha. Well, she’s my girlfriend,” he reminded her, that was just something he liked to casually pepper into conversations. “Do you want me to get her to call you or something?”

“No, I just need you to not tell anyone you’re dating her,” she said instead, starting to play with her hair anxiously. 

“Uh,” his brain came to a halt. “Why? It’s not like they’re gonna ask me or anyone else to confirm it, will they?” He didn’t like telling lies if there would be consequences, and especially when it came to him not being able to profess his love for Emma. 

“Well, they might, they have no sense of privacy they always want me to prove things, and they didn’t buy it the first time! What if they ask you and you’ve already told everyone you’re dating her?” Her voice had picked up its tempo, and she was starting to gesticulate her words as she spoke. “You know?”

“That’s sounds a little paranoid, Melissa, I don’t think they really care,” he told her bluntly. “It’ll be fine, I’ve already told Dylan I’ve got a girlfriend anyways.”

“Did you tell them it was Emma?” She snapped, and Paul could actually see the colour leave her face. “Did you say her name?”

“Uh no but-“

She cut him off. “Tell them it’s Charlotte then if they ask!” She pleaded. 

“What? No!” She was being paranoid. Like those two girls would interact with him anyways! There was no need to make such a big deal out of this. “I can’t tell them Charlotte is my girlfriend, Sam is literally right here as well you know, and what if they ask him? Lying isn’t good, Melissa.” He wanted to tell Dylan about Emma, he wanted Dylan to think he was cool!

She gripped at her hair. “Is that all you’re gonna say!?” 

He crossed his arms anxiously over his stomach, leaning back against the wall. “Melissa, you aren’t kids anymore, I bet they’re reasonable adults who can mind their own business.”

“You were calling me a kid ten minutes ago! Why are they the ones who’re adults!? They aren’t good people Paul! They aren’t!” When she was mad she spoke too quickly, sometimes it took Paul a second to process it all and she could barely contain herself waiting for a reply.

“I don’t want to argue,” he bit his lip, trying to talk slowly to encourage her to do the same. “Just don’t go back and talk to them, no one is making you. They just sound like they’re stressing you out.”

“I can’t!” She spluttered. “Because Brooke told me to come back and to be quick and if I don’t she’s gonna- ugh!” She didn’t look like she knew what actually.

Paul felt his stomach start to turn, it was hard to feel good arguing with someone who seemed so genuinely nervous. “It’s not highschool anymore Melissa,” he reminded her. “You could go home right now and they wouldn’t ever talk to you again.” 

“That’s not the important part Paul! I’m not talking about that! I am just asking that if anyone asks you, to tell them you’re dating someone else! It doesn’t have to be Charlotte! They might not even ask!”

His brows furrowed, his fingers and hands starting to work at one another. The point of high school reunions was to show off all your new gains, and it was emma specifically that he wanted to talk about!   
“Just don’t bring up the topic again, did you give them her name? Why can’t we just say they’re two different Emma’s?”

“Because Brooke basically took my phone that’s why! She saw the photos and she pressured me into giving her a name!” She stomped a foot down. “She hasn’t changed a bit! She’s just way taller now and I know I shouldn’t be scared but I am! And I’m just asking that on the occasion someone asks you to just say you’re with Charlotte, or anyone! Okay?” 

His eye twitched as he listened. He didn’t know why he had to miss out on talking about Emma just because Melissa told a lie. “You know maybe you are still a kid, maybe you haven’t changed if you’re gonna tell lies about this stuff, you’re an adult Melissa, just walk away if you aren’t gonna tell the truth,” he thought it was reasonable but from the way her face turned red and her jaw dropped, he figured it perhaps wasn’t. “I just really wanted to show these guys Emma, that was the only thing I was looking forward to tonight you know?” 

“I haven’t changed?” She spat, taking off her glasses just so she didn’t have to look at anything for a moment. 

“Yes,” he tried to explain himself while she wasn’t breathing fire at him. “You’re still sucking up to those girls, and you were the one who wanted to come along in the first place when you knew they might be here!” 

“You’re really gonna blame me for this?” 

“Why didn’t you just say you were single? Melissa, I’m really getting along with these guys okay? And I really don’t want you to ruin it by having some sort of delusion that they’re gonna take you to court over this!” 

“Paul, maybe you’re the one who hasn’t changed!” 

Silence ripped through the conversation. He was the one who had changed! What was she on about? 

“You’re the one sucking up to those guys, you won’t hang out with me around them, you’re still trying to impress them, you were the one scared of coming back here not me! You wanna know why I’m the one who’s changed? Because I wanted to come back and show them I was better! That I’m happier now! That I’m a totally different person from who I was, you don’t get a say in whether or not I’m scared when those girls show up again! I’m the one who’s gotten better!” 

“Melissa.”

“I just wanted to show them I was doing so much better okay? And yeah, maybe I’m not ready to face the girls who ruined a solid couple years of my life but that’s kinda justified!” She matched his posture, stretching her back so she was his height, and he could see her wet eyes. “And you won’t even do one thing for me! Who cares about Dylan man! Remember when he made sports contests mandatory?”

Oh, at the mention, yes. He and Melissa had joined in miserably. A king hit for a king hit, she had offered. If they were both blacked out then it wasn’t on them to attend. Paul had just suggested they sneak out to the library instead, she agreed that that was a much better idea.

“You hated that! And that time when he skipped the canteen line and brought the last of the chips you were gonna get! That was Dylan! You were mad all lunch!” 

He remembered that too, Melissa had to share her lunch with him. He didn’t know who that had been, he had almost forgotten, but Melissa had remembered.

“You literally never spoke to Dylan once before now, why do you need him to like you so much?” She jabbed him in the chest but suddenly he wasn’t really feeling all that mad. “You hated him before!”

Melissa really liked him, she always had ever since they met. Somehow, she looked up to him. And he never really said it often, but she was his friend too, and he, in some strange way, looked up to her as well. 

“I’m just asking one thing of you Paul, one thing that might not even happen.”

Even now she didn’t mind being second place tonight, she just wanted to be around him. He owed her the same respect she gave him, and calling her paranoid didn’t sit right. With all of these memories coming back it was hard to block out how miserable she used to be some days, and how she’s drag him down different hallways just to avoid those girls, how even the mention of them seemed to ruin her days. 

“Uh, Melissa,” he straightened his tie, but his hands didn’t stop fiddling with it. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t like them,” she cooled down slightly when he acknowledged that. “And you’re kinda right,” he snickered nervously. “Dylan isn’t the best,” he confessed quietly in case he was in ear shot. “He plays sport, that should’ve been my first red flag.” All the stories of the people he was making fun of tonight were pretty big red flags too though, of course. 

Maybe Dylan’s opinion shouldn’t matter so much. Melissa thought he was cool, and she had seen him in some of his worse days. Maybe her opinion was a little more valuable. Maybe those girls should be the ones he’s mad at if anything, that would make him a much better friend.

“Well,” he had lost track of where the conversation had gotten, but he could figure from her face. “We’re gonna have to do something about Sam first then, aren’t we?” 

The heat paled in her cheeks as her eyes glanced up, already rather embarrassed for raising her voice. “Do something?”

“Yeah, so he doesn’t talk. He has to leave.”

For a split second, they shared a knowing look.

“He’s a cop, I don’t care about his feelings if you dont,” she dropped her voice right down to a whisper, and to show they were on the same page he bobbed his head towards the gym doors, holding a finger to his lips.

Melissa let out a giggle muffled by only her hand, and raced to skip after Paul, a light in her eyes again. 

The gym was perhaps just a little emptier now, but somehow a lot louder. 

They found Sam quickly, right by the drinks table because of course where else would he be? He didn’t seem to know anyone else which was lucky for them because he was all the more welcoming when they came stalking his way.

“Hey Sam,” Melissa started, trickery thick in her tone and a little more hellbent on keeping her secret than Paul. “What’re you up to tonight?” 

He hesitated to answer, not expecting that level of enthusiasm to be thrown at him. “God, this whole thing is pretty mediocre isn’t it,” he said instead, clearing his throat. “There’s only two schools in this town and somehow we still picked the bad one huh?” 

Paul shared that sentiment but that wasn’t the point of the conversation.

“If it’s so bad then you should go home,” Melissa suggested with no semblance of subtlety. 

“Hah, why?” Sam shoved one hand into his pocket, his thumb in the belt loops of his pants. “You ‘bout to burn the place down? Go nuts, I’ll turn the other way.”

Paul squinted his eyes, surprised to have heard that, but not from Sam. “That’s a little corrupt,” he highlighted.

“Oh like he isn’t though,” Melissa pushed in, not finished talking but taking a long sip of her drink just to upset Sam as he waited. “Like, like,” she put on a realistic enough laugh but one that was not fond in any sense of the word. “Remember, in highschool,” she was droning on a little, but Paul was not impatient. He could only imagine how brutal Melissa could get when she was so driven. “Oooh, I shouldn’t.” She shook her head, and Paul was happy she held her mouth.

“Oh what, I used to steal from the stationary closet, who cares? I was seventeen. It didn’t hurt anyone. Everyone took a pencil or two man.” He seemed more bothered she had brought it up than anything else. 

“Who let you be a cop?” Paul tugged at this collar anxiously, not one for insults but definitely one for pointing out the harsh truth.

“I was actually talking about the other time,” she corrected him, and Paul could see his face turn a slightly brighter shade of red, “The field trip the week after you were put in detention and your parents weren’t letting you go? So you applied for a grant from the school to get your own money by taking it away from others? Isn’t that like, embezzlement or something?” 

“Okay, hey-” 

Paul interrupted Sam by taking Melissa’s drink from her hand as she was going for another sip. How’d she know about that? He didn’t, it didn’t even seem like Sam remembered it that well. 

“How’ve ya been since high school man? Let’s reminisce,” she encouraged him, elbowing him. “Police school right? What’d you do with the free time? What was that, 600 hours? A couple weeks?”

“Hey, you’re not a cop okay? You can talk once you do all that training. It’s very strenuous, okay you wouldn’t understand.” He turned to Paul, assuming he was going to make more sense. “Take her away okay?”

“Why?” Paul answered, his heart skipping a beat and his hands starting to sweat, but he found it hard to hold down a slight smile. “What’s she doing wrong? She’s right isn’t she? Only 600 hours?”

His face flushed a deep red. “Well I think I’m a little more important to the community than the both of you combined, now cut it out, take her away Paul.”

“Does Charlotte tie your shoes for you?” Melissa snorted, leaning into Paul’s side. She wasn’t making eye contact with either of them but it kind of made it more brutal. “Hah. Okay cop.”

“What do you two even want?” He let out a heavy sigh, not trying to mask his frustration. “We were all kids in highschool, but we were just playing games Paul. Why do you have to be so upset about it? It was ages ago.”

Paul heaved a sigh too, memories stirring in his brain again now that it had been brought up. “You really didn’t have anything better to do in highschool though?” Maybe it was unjustified to tell Melissa she should’ve gotten over the fear of those two girls. “But steal my stuff and make fun of me?”

“You really lived up to your potential huh?” Melissa chimed in. “Which isn’t much because you’re a cop, hah!” she let out a loud, rancorous laugh from the back of her throat.

“You just keep bringing that full circle huh? Let’s see who you call when you need a hand okay?” 

“Okay not to be controversial, but I’ve literally never met anyone who’s needed to call the cops. Can we just say it? If someone breaks into my apartment that’s between me, them, and my softball bat.”

“The town doesn’t revolve around you Melissa, and you need to cut it out before I book you for something.”

“Uh!” Paul felt his jaw drop. “You’re just gonna fake the documents?” It came out louder than he intended, and people were looking. He grabbed Melissa’s collar, ready to pull her back. He hadn’t meant to say that, now he was probably a target too.

“Oh my god,” he let out a frustrated hiss. “I was kidding, can you not say that so loudly man?”

Melissa clapped her hands together. “Boo, go home Sam! You literally have a wife waiting for you and you chose to come here!”

“Jesus,” he huffed, his mouth slightly ajar but not able to think of anything else to say. 

Paul’s heart was still racing, but it was exhilarating in a way. “Ah. Sorry she’s hard to control, maybe you should just go home? You know, before you draw anymore attention to yourself.” He was laughing though, laughing with her. It felt sort of cathartic to get Sam back for once, to put him in the awkward position.

“The fun is over here now anyways,” Melissa grinned with her teeth, not with her eyes. 

Paul grabbed Melissa’s arm, assisting her back a step since she had dug her feet in to make a point. “Uh, lovely seeing you again Sam!” He lingered because he thought he could wait for a reply, but after a few seconds of Sam’s speechless glare he grabbed Melissa and booked it back to the other side of the gym, sliding under the bleachers out of an old habit working its way back to him, but laughing the whole time. It seemed a few more of the introverted kids had found a hiding spot back here too, and they received a few surprised looks as they barrelled in. “Is he actually gonna arrest us? Is he actually gonna?”

Melissa scoffed, crossing her arms. “No, Paul. I got that all on record anyways,” she whipped out her phone, showing him the recording as she ended it. “I don’t trust the police anyways. I wouldn’t let you get arrested.” 

“Oh, better keep that off the recording,” he double checked to ensure she stopped it as she peered out through the gaps in the seats. “Is he going?”

“Well he’s not in the gym anymore at least,” she announced victoriously, “and he’s not near the girls either, so he’s not unravelling my plan either,” she added just a little quieter like it was meant for herself. “You think I’ll be okay?”

Paul came up behind her to glance out through the slits. “Yeah, Melissa. It’s not like I’ll tell them,” he finally assured her out loud. “We didn’t good cop-bad cop Sam out of here for nothing.”

“Oh silly Paul,” she stretched up to look through the next row of seats for a better vantage point. “There’s no such thing as a good cop.”

“We get the point, you want Sam gone. Me too, haha.” He ushered Melissa back out from under the seats. “Alright, I’m headed back outside okay? Are you feeling better?”

She shrugged, dipping her head in a hesitant nod. “Yeah, you know I think I’m not half bad, I just feel kinda yucky about…” she lowered her voice, scanning the gym frantically. “You know, them.”

“Oh, Brooke and Simone?”

“Don’t say their names!” she slapped a hand over her own mouth. “Yes, no, yes. I don’t want them to hear. Look, go on. You go back to Dylan I’m gonna go and,” she rolled her head like she was exhausted all of a sudden, like she could barely hold herself up. “Go back to them I guess. Brooke is gonna get mad if I don’t anyways I think.” Her pace came down to a sort of trickle of words like she was thinking of each one just as she said it. “Text me when you’re ready to head home okay?”

“Yeah,” he followed after her since they were headed in the same direction, wondering if in fact he should be the one to drive. Aside from that bit of anxiety-inducing fun, Paul believed the night could still be spared

“I mean, I don’t really wanna go back to them now but it’s a waste if I don’t right?”

“Hey!” Came a voice that made Paul want to cover his ears, Melissa froze in her spot as the crowd parted for a girl he could assume was the exact one she didn’t want to see. “Hey, Lissie! You didn’t come back,” she pouted. “And we were waiting for you for ages.”

Paul didn’t quite believe that. 

“It wasn’t that long,” Melissa corrected them, glancing at the time on her phone. “Like ten minutes, Brooke,” she defended herself. 

“No it was longer than that,” she shook her head. “Simone and I were over there, come with me,” she grabbed her wrist. 

“Melissa and I are actually leaving now,” Paul spoke up, stretching out his back even though he was much taller already anyways. Melissa clearly wasn’t happy, that was obvious, if he could tell without even looking at her face, so should Brooke. He could actually feel the anger radiating off her.

“Ooh, Melissa, we were gonna take some photos, don’t you want to come?” Brooke raised an eyebrow. Paul wasn’t an actor, but he had learnt a thing or two from Emma and that was definitely a forced frown. “Come with me.” It was like Paul hadn’t even said anything.

“Uh, no,” Melissa stood her ground fortunately. “I’m hanging out with my friend now,” she reached backwards blindly, finding his arm to grab onto. “And I’m done here.”

“You said you were gonna come back though?”

“Well she isn’t,” Paul cut in again, “we’re leaving.”

“We didn’t speak for the past decade. I think we’re gonna be pretty good if we cut tonight short actually. Bye, Brooke.” 

And like it was only being done to bother her all along, Brooke gave one last exaggerated pout and then a resigned ‘oh.’ And Paul hurried Melissa out and away, ignoring her resistance and any more words from Brooke.

“Oh,” Melissa glanced over her shoulder as the left. “No Paul you didn’t have to do that,” she started. “What was bullying Sam for then?”

“I don’t know, free therapy?” He just joked, that mental imagine of the distaste seared into his memory and relished greatly.

“Are we really going home?”

“Oh, I was going to go see Dylan and Blake again, I guess. But you can come with me!” he invited her. School was in the past, over a decade ago now for him and Dylan. Surely he didn’t have problems with younger kids now. 

“Sorry for making you pick a fight with Sam, and for making you have to pretend to date Charlotte,” she dipped her head back down, but kept her eyes on him.

He swung his hands by his side, “y’know, it’s okay. Sam had it coming and I would treat her way better than he would anyways. I’ll pretend-date her in her honour.”

Melissa let out a hum of agreement. “Oh yes. If Sam won’t brag about her someone has to do it, she deserves it.” 

“Damn. Well now no one is hyping up Emma,” he pointed out, if she wasn’t hanging out with Brooke tonight then who was fake dating her? 

She grazed her knuckles against his upper arm as she raised a hand to nudge him. “That’s your job, for when you go home, you’ll have to break the news to Charlotte that you’re fake breaking up though.”

“Aw man. Fake break ups are way harder than real breakups,” he played along. It was a lazy sort of joking, where the joke itself wasn’t funny but more the fact no one was insituating it was one.

“Yeah, it’s the acting part of it,” Melissa shrugged, quieting herself down as they approached the duo of men, still waiting in the courtyard where they had been the whole time. 

“Paul, hey,” Dylan and Blake were sitting on a planter box, Blake was smoking another cigarette and Dylan was beckoning them over, but just as he had worried, his smile faded when he saw Melissa. “All sorted then?” He asked them. 

“Oh, yup. I‘m just hanging out with Paul now,” Melissa didn’t settle in right away. 

“Yeah is that all good?” Paul commented, feeling confident though now. He had been thinking, and Melissa was right. Their friendship was a little bit more important than Dylan, and seeing his face again gave way to several other troublesome memories like the time he used his school captain privilege to skip that math test Paul had been freaking out about all week.

“Oh well,” Dylan exchanged a glance with Blake. “We weren’t gonna be here much longer, man.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh,” Melissa copied him.

Blake stood up, putting out his cigarette. “We were only wrapping things up. Let’s catch up though sometimes, maybe we’ll grab a coffee or something.” Blake pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “Have a good night though, man. Nice to catch up with you.”

Paul kept his mouth sealed until Blake and Dylan had hurried off, both in the same direction, likely to the same place too.

“Oh man. I’m sorry. I ruined it huh?” Melissa patted his back. She didn’t like Dylan.

“At least he wants to catch up?” Paul brought up hopefully, his spirits not crushed just yet.

Melissa shook her head. “Nah. That’s just a nicety. Who ever follows up on that?” She sat down on the planter box where Blake was sitting, picking a leaf off a bush to fiddle with. 

“Hey,” he sat down next to her. “Remember back in highschool when we met?”

She nodded right away. “Mhm, in the library. We traded pokemon cards.”

He laughed. He didn’t remember that part. “Well, we only became friends because no one else was gonna have us, right?”

“Mmm, consistency,” she made a cheering motion with her hand. “Oh how history repeats itself.” 

He gave an anxious chuckle. “If it were up to me now, I think I’d hang out with you, even if I had another choice.”

She rolled her eyes, amused. “The bar is pretty low already, Paul. Brooke, Dylan, Sam, I’m kind of the cream of the crop. I’m offended you didn’t choose me earlier!” She elbowed him with a big grin.

“Sorry your night didn’t go very well,” he patted his knees to give them something to do. “And sorry for saying you hadn’t grown up.”

She batted a dismissive hand, leaning forward and resting her head on her hand. “Ah it's in the past. Sorry I made you bully Sam for nothing.”

He nodded, giving her a smile. “I call that justice. It felt good.”

From here, he could still hear the voices in the gym and every now and then a particularly loud thump or call from the party inside. He couldn’t imagine anymore why they wanted to home, and what he expected at least. Maybe he had just come to keep her happy, that made him feel less guilty at least. “The night went better than I expected, if you were wondering.”

“Oh I knew it was gonna be a trainwreck anyways,” she sighed. “But thanks for humouring me.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets, clicking his tongue as he got back up. “Man. You wanna just head home?” He didn’t have the energy or the effort for any more extra socialising. “Wanna come back to my place? There’s probably still leftovers from Emma’s dinner,” he snorted. 

“Yeah, let’s go visit my girlfriend huh?” She beamed, standing up.

“Hey, cut that out or you’re uninvited.”

“Ah well I hope there’s food, I was kinda banking on that salad bar honestly. Let’s take this cool kid party to Emma though.”

He snorted, hard. “Yes, admittedly the coolest of them all.”

She nodded to agree, but gave a short cackle. “Oh look at you!” She nudged him. “You still managed to fit in a brag about your girlfriend! Good for you!”

He elbowed her back in revenge as they walked towards the car park , and she was just a little too tipsy to keep walking in a straight line, her laughter almost like she was singing a song. “Hey, maybe we are the coolest people here after all.”


End file.
